Professor Karen Lucas

Position: Chair in Transport and Social Analysis

Areas of expertise:
travel behaviours; social inequalities in mobility and accessibility; low income and vulnerable populations; global north and south; qualitative methods; social and distributional impact assessment

In 2015, she won Edward L. Ullman Award by the Transport Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers and in 2016 the University of Leeds Women of Achievment Award, both for her significant contribution to transportation geography.

Karen is a regular advisor to national governments in the UK and abroad. In 2002, she was seconded to the Social Exclusion Unit to develop policies to address the transport exclusion of low-income and disadvantaged groups and communities. She subsequently worked for the Department of Transport to undertake pilot studies and develop the Guidance on Accessibility Planning that resulted from this study. She has subsequently worked for local and national governments in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. She is currently, seconded to Highways England to set up a methodology for the community impact assessment of the Lower Thames Crossing project.

Karen joined ITS in 2013. She was previoulsy a Senior Research Fellow at the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), University of Oxford, where she also held a Senior Research Fellowship at Kellogg College.

She previously worked for 11 years as a senior research fellow at the Transport Studies Group, University of Westminster, where I was also research coordinator for the Centre for Sustainable Development.

<h4>Research projects</h4>
<p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

I am happy to consider supervising research projects in a range of areas related to the transport inequalities, accessibility and the mobility experiences of differnt population groups from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. In particular I would welcome applications on:

The social consequences of transport poverty for different social groups

Social assessment of transport projects, policies and plans

The impacts of transport investment projects in development contexts

Youth mobility and access to economic opportunities

Inclusive participation in transport decision-making

Research groups and institutes

Social and Political Sciences

Current postgraduate research students

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4>
<p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/research-opportunities">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>